Now the blind can surf Internet

Sharmila Banerjee, Kolkata, July 25

CUTTING-EDGE technology developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur may soon enable the blind to move about in the countless alleys of cyberspace. The sightless would be able to surf the Net, read texts in Indian languages, take up normal office work or even perceive images.

IIT Kharagpur has taken Louis Braille’s system a quantum step ahead. The technology, a fruition of years of research, involved developing software that easily translates Braille into plain English or any other language on a computer. The user just has to punch in the keys of his keyboard, a specially designed one that would have all Braille characters. As he keys in words, the computer, through a specially installed sound card, would read out the written text to avoid mistakes. The text on the screen would, however, be displayed in plain English.

The project, a brainchild of Anupam Basu, professor of the department of computer science and engineering of the institute, has been funded by the Ministry of Information Technology and is being jointly conducted by Webel Mediatronics Ltd.

The aim of the project was to “bridge the communication gap between the sightless and the sighted”, said Basu The software—Bharati Braille 1.0 – would be further developed to translate Braille not only into English, but five other Indian languages – Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Telugu and Marathi.

The computer reads out whatever is typed and thus “the writing becomes error free”. The best part is that it is much affordable and easier to operate than its foreign version, Dr Basu said.

The complete system with several devices and Braille printers will be available for Rs. 1.5 lakh. “In order to bring it within the reach of the common man we have already formed five Braille resource centres all over india where blind student can receive training at very low cost,” Basu said.

“Once a person receives training, he or she will be read to handle normal office work like a normal person. The study material developed in one centre will be sent to other centres, and a virtual Braille library will be formed,” Basu said.

Source: Hindustan Times
Dated :26th July, 2001